Thursday, July 05, 2007

A History Lesson

Happy of Fourth of July! Hopefully everyone had a safe and happy holiday.
Believe it or not, the Fourth of July is truly a day to celebrate. Imagine this:
50 people deserted on an island, 25 men and 25 women (so re-populating is NOT an issue). Ten of them have taken it upon themselves to be the leaders. They scouted out food, water, and shelter so the others could sit there and ponder their existence. The ten intrepid, leaders discovered landscaping features, searched for a way off the island, and brought dinner back. It is obvious, the 50 people are going no where. So the men are faced with a decision-how do they set up a new civilization? Do they vote in a King, or do they vote 3 or 4 of their own members, the ten bossing everyone around, to form a type of government? In a very watered down nutshell, this was the limited examples of government available to the Founding Fathers. Government for the people by the people had been a pipe dream for thousands of years till some hotheads on the East Coast got a bee in their bonnet and told England to stuff it. Once the Colonial Americans beat England, the question became "now what?" How do we raise money? Does everyone want to join our club? Do we have an army? Who is ruler? A good King? One person from each area? Who will lead us? Once a leader was chosen, what do we call him? There was a very vocal faction who felt that the President should be called "His Highness". Where will the new leader live? Remember, sending a letter, once we got a postal division, could take weeks. It seems obvious that we have the government we have, but in 1776, these were scary questions, no real answers, and no one to turn to, to find out. It turned John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, close friends during the actual revolution, into enemies. Adams felt the people shouldn't have to much involvement. These simple farmers were not bright enough to possibly know enough to help guide a country. Jefferson was the complete opposite-government for the people by the people meant just that, no matter where they decided to go.
Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves. In 1776, government for the people by the people meant white guys. Women, slaves, and anyone considered "undesirable" (which is a lot of leeway), were left out of this little dream. The framers of this nation were about freedom for themselves. However, the fact that a bunch of rabble rousers spurned the mighty British Empire, however they did it, gave hope to a lot of people and has changed History for good or bad. Think about it-for thousands of years things pretty much ran the same way no matter where in the world you looked. Kings and the occasional Queen through out Europe, Emperors in Asia, Cheiftan leaders throughout Africa and North America-even South and Central American had Kings and royalty. After the American Revolution, other nations, particularly France, started to see what was possible. The start of the American Revolutionay War was truly, "the shot heard 'round the world", because it certainly changed the world permanently.
So with that mind, I wish everybody a great holiday and a thanks that we have the government we have. Check out the quotes below-I thought they were relevant.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Entertaining post Dena. Maybe you should get a degree in history?